The Situation
by Thydude
Summary: Max has been defeated. After spending two years in an isolation tank, she is taken out only to be faced with a situation far worse than she has ever encountered. A situation that presents a problem that if left unsolved, death is inevitable. Some Fax
1. Negative Situations

I, Maximum Ride, have been beaten. It has been two years since I saw my flock. During a fight with the fly boys when we were leaving my mom's house we had been massively outnumbered. I did all that I could to keep fighting but they knocked me unconscious and took me back to the "school". I am now in this isolation tank, and I've been in it since they brought me here. My sanity was nearly gone. If I had not had the hope that the flock would one day save me, there would be no doubt my mind would be overtaken and be allowed to escape to Crazyville (or Insane Town, whichever sounds better to you).

Jeb had tried to save me many, many times but every single one of them the director had came in and Jeb had to fake he was giving me another test. The director had apparently not gotten the effects of almost having died by mine and Nudge's hands. I missed them all so much, especially Fang. Loved the whole flock equally but I had been in love with him. It took me only the first week to realize that. Now I must wait to see him, to tell him just that. My sanity also laid with that desire. That one day I could tell Fang everything. The effects of isolation tank over took my head yet again, dammit why must this have happened. The last time Jeb had tried to get me out came back.

_Flashback _

_I laid there motionlessly in the dark abyss that surrounds me. Finally a sensation of rising came to me, and light pored in. Jeb was there helping me get out while I was being temporary blinded. I felt like my eyeballs had engulfed into flames and each millimeter of my eyes were slowly turning into ash. My eyes eventually adjusted. Jeb looked worried and like he hadn't slept in at least a week. His hair oily and messed up, his eyes a dark shade of red and huge bags lay underneath them._

_I was the first to speak, "You look like shit."_

_He smiled and gave a small chuckle "Could say the same for you." I knew he was right but I didn't smile in return. "Max, this may be my last attempt to help you. I may be fired if I get caught this time, if this doesn't work out just know that I've done all I've can for you. If I get fired I wouldn't be able to do anything for you." I nodded and gave a weak smile to him. "Alright, I'm gonna bring you to the roof, everyone else will think I brought you to the lab to get some blood work done. That's how I got all of this authorized." I nodded again and as we stepped out of the isolation tank room, the director came ran into them._

"_Ah, Mr. Batchelder, you must be taking her to the lab. Don't worry, I'll take her for you." the Director said to him authoritatively, telling Jeb that I will go with her no matter what. The director added a big smile, and Jeb let go of my arm. As I walked down the huge hallway, I looked back. Jeb mouthed "I'm so sorry." to me r and the light just seemed to die in both of our eyes. I turned into the lab with the director, knowing this very well may be the last time I saw either sun light or artificial light ever again._

That had been 3 weeks ago. I just seemed to succumb to the darkness now, just waiting. In an immeasurable amount of time later, a voice filled my head.

"**Max?!"** Jeb's voice came in my mind

"What now Jeb?" I thought back.

"**I'm coming to take you out in a few minutes. Fang will be with me, he will explain you and the flock's…**_**situation"**_I was ecstatic for a moment, but then I remembered what he had ended with, Fang will explain the flocks _situation_. But anything couldn't be as bad as this damn tank, or so I thought.


	2. What Next?

I stood by Jeb silently, watching Max get out of the isolation tank. What the hell had happened to her? Her skin was paler than any human (or animal for that matter) I had ever seen. As she stepped in to the bright lit room, her pupils shrunk to the size of pin holes, and I watched her drop down to her to knees and cover her eyes as if the sun was her unbeatable enemy. I hated seeing her like this and I didn't want to tell her what was happening to the flock. It had happened to everyone so far, everyone except me.

*****

I got out of isolation tank, suffering through the effects of actual light. After a couple of minutes, when my eyes could see, I finally realized Fang was standing beside Jeb. I ran to him first, I was going to tell him everything I had figured out over the last two years. I hugged him tenderly and silent tears fell down my face. When I finally let go, Fang looked the same as he had before. His eyes looked liked he had seen more since the last they were together, looked like he saw way more than any 16 year old kid should ever have to see.

"Max, I think you should sit down for what he fixing to tell you." Jeb said, breaking awkward silence.

"I prefer standing." I replied coldly to Jeb and turned to Fang, "What's happening, what's going on?"

"You know how Ari died by having an expiration date?" Fang questioned me.

"Yeah but what does that have anything to do with anything? Where's my flock Fang?" I angrily asked back. I knew what happened to Ari, I did not want to have him brought back to my memory so fast after finally getting Fang back. "Fang I've got to tell you something. I think I..." I barely got out but Fang cut me off.

"Whatever you were going to say it can wait, trust me." Fang said and I cut him off.

"Then what is it?" I asked.

"Max…," he started unsteadily, "Gazzy and Angel are dead. We're all getting our expiration dates. Me and you are the only ones without one as of now."

"What?!" I asked back, not knowing my voice had risen that much. No, that couldn't have happened. They were not supposed to get expiration dates. They were not supposed to die. "How...When?" I cautiously asked back.

"They both got there's in the same week. They never told any of us until I saw Gazzy's about a week before...before they both died. They were both so brave. They knew that nothing could be done. I...us...the flock did all we could do for them. They both died in the same week last month." I dropped onto the floor, weeping loudly. Fang by now had wrapped his arms around me and was sitting silently beside me. I laid my head down into Fangs lap while he stroked my hair. After a few minutes I stopped and sat slowly up. I had known the others were probably also facing imminent death, so I was prepared for the worse now.

"What about Iggy and Nudge?" I questioned Fang.

"Nudge is supposed to die today; she got hers a few weeks ago. Iggy decided to stay and help her through it, since they've been dating for the past year. Nudge didn't want to die anywhere near the school. I also took a glance at Iggy's neck when I left this morning; I saw that his expiration date had appeared overnight." Fang finally finished, she could tell that he hated talking so much. Why must this happen to them? Why were they dying so young? All they ever did to deserve this was being born. Apparently, that had been enough though.

I glanced back at Fang who was stroking my hand slowly with his, our fingers entangled around the others hand.

"What now?" I questioned, tears still trickling down my face. Fang shrugged but Jeb took a deep breath. Great, that's exactly what I wanted, Jeb to come in and give a long ass monologue of what they needed to do now. Just great.


	3. Nudge's Demise

I came out of my only escape, my dreams, for the last time in my life. Sitting up slowly I moved away from Iggy's arm, which had been wrapped tightly around my waist. Thoughts started rapidly through my brain, as if sleep had no after effect. Why am I with a guy that is 3 years older than me, I asked myself. Overall, I do not really know, it just seemed right. For any normal person, a 13-year-old going out with a 16-year-old seemed both weird and kinda gross. However, calling either of them normal could be considered a farfetched lie. For the numerous years we had spent by each other sides, we had only been sharing a brotherly-sisterly love. About 15 months ago though, I just sort of fell in love with him. It was not love at first sight, more like love at 1,000,000th site.

Either way, I was glad I finally grasped a hold of the courage to ask him out. We had both been happier than any other time in their lives, until of course the Gasman and Angel had died. I suddenly swiped the back of my neck, subconsciously remembering my upcoming demise. I wanted to be in this world longer than this. Considering how most humans lived their lives, in front of TVs hoping to live their favorite characters life instead of their own, mine had been pretty damn good. I had done more than most people do in their entire lives. Iggy stirred slightly, and I finally stopped obsessing about myself, him, and my soon to come death. I went to the front of the cave and sat down by entrance, waiting for Iggy to wake.

*****

I woke up suddenly, my first realization being that Nudge was not in my arms. Worry overtook my mind, where was she? I sat silently up and my worry ceased when I heard footsteps approaching from my left. As I leaned back on my hands, Nudge came up and sat beside me, and grasped a hold of my hand tenderly.

"Sleep well?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Always do when I'm with you," she sweetly answered. I softly rubbed her hand with his thumb, enjoying how they were interlaced.

"So what do you want to do today?" I questioned cautiously.

"Do you love me?" she asked, apparent that she was ignoring my question.

"Of course I love you Nudge, why'd you ask." I responded earnestly.

"Just wanted to hear you say it." She announced. I gave a sly smile and pulled her closer to me, making it where her head was leaning against mine. "Iggy I don't wanna die like this, sitting here waiting for Death to take me." My muscles tensed suddenly, and then relaxed to their normal state. The question had startled me for a minute, but I knew what she meant. I would not want die in a cave that as in the side of a cliff either.

"Then how do you want to...want to die?" I asked, barely getting my question out.

"Well, I'll tell you when it's that time. Right now I'm not spending my last day in this filthy ass cave, so come on." she suddenly got up, ran to the entrance of the cave, and jumped gracefully off. When I heard wings come out, I followed her lead. Following the sound of her wings beating, swiftly copying her movements as if I had eyes of my own. I sped up until I was right under Nudge, feeling every downbeat of her wings. We flew over that part of the Pacific Ocean for the next few hours, enjoying the one thing that they had suffered most their lives just to get the freedom to do. I hated to admit but it was worth it. Spending the first decade of my life in cages, my eyesight being taken away. It was definitely all worth the trouble, to be able to fly like the hawks. I heard Nudge miss a stroke with her wings, and then another. Suddenly she was falling, and I ran (okay flew) to catch her. Amazingly, I caught her in time. Worry overtook me, was she dead? As I started to fly back towards where I thought the cave was, she spoke up. "Don't go back there Iggy, this is what I wanted. To die flying," she said with an almost enthusiastic voice.

"Okay I won't." I agreeably stated. Then I posed a questioned to her, "What did I ever do to deserve you?"

"That's a question God could only answer." she said and I heard her give a small chuckle. It felt good to hear her laugh; she had not since Gazzy and Angel had 'expired'. I felt a few small tears slide down my face, followed by many more. Nudge wiped them away a few seconds after they started, and they slowly ceased. I had to admire her, refusing to die with sadness and worry. She truly was the bravest person I would ever know. "God you're hot." Nudge suddenly remarked.

"Tell me something I don't know." I said back, and we burst out in fits of laughter. Both not subsiding until the need to breath deprived us of the ability any longer.

"Drop me when I say. I know you won't be able to bury me and I've always loved the adrenaline rush of falling," she told me. I nodded, and kept flying over the ocean that was beneath. After a few minutes, I resumed talking.

"I love you so much Nudge." I said softly, knowing how true it was.

"I know, I love you too. Now." I heard her say this and I kissed her warm lips tenderly. Then I did as she said, I dropped her. I waited a few seconds until I heard the water splash. Sobs overtook me and I closed my eyes tightly. Why did she have to die so early? Why had she been taken from him so early?

A few more questions like this went through me until I blinked my eyes open. In one instance I swear I saw Nudge right in front of me in midst of the darkness that is my sight, but one more second later she had gone. She had been smiling, that is all I could comprehend from that one instance. I realized it had probably been one of those many pictures Angel had mentally sent me, because it was impossible for me to see her. She had just died. I flew back towards the school Fang had left to go to.

*****

Iggy had just dropped me. I fell through the air, feeling life starting to drain from my body. About half way down, it felt like my soul was ripping out of my body. I never felt attached to my body, but it felt like the strings were breaking. I was breaking out of my body, feeling more freedom than I had in my entire life. Then as I felt my feet touch the cold, salty water, I was floating above the water and I started soaring up at a speed I thought was surely impossible to accomplish on the Earth's surface. I came to Iggy who had tears spilling down his face, and I smiled. He truly had loved me. As I came up faster, everything went black and now I was going to a bright light, almost too bright to look at but it strangely did not hurt her eyes. As I got closer to the light, I saw two familiar silhouettes.


	4. Explanations

I lay by Max silently, her head on top of my chest. She had been asleep beside me, on this bed, for about two hours. I felt sorry for her, being in that isolation tank for that long and not seeing anyone but those assholes in white coats. Must have been a living hell for her, literally and figuratively. Nevertheless, it could not much better now, knowing that half of her 'family' was dead now. I was unsure about Nudge's death but I knew she was going to die soon. Why was this happening to us, according to how the timetable was going with all of them, they would all 'expire' by the end of next month. Of course, there was always that one thing Jeb had told us about. God, I did not want to remember that conversation, but my prayers were certainly unanswered.

_Flashback_

"_What now?" Max asked through her tears. I just shrugged because I did not know, but of course, Jeb's loud cough told me he did._

"_Well I think it's my turn to explain what's going." Jeb started but Max interrupted._

"_It's pretty fucking obvious to us Jeb. We know what's going on; we are all going to die." Max yelled at Jeb, her rage seeming to empower. She looked as strong as the day she was taken. _

"_I'm afraid you don't know anything Maximum. The expiration dates are not pre-determined nor are they an effect of premature death because of your genetic mutation. It's caused by a poison that was suddenly released into your cardiovascular system that takes about two weeks to actually kill you." Jeb explained._

"_Go on." I encouraged._

"_Itex injected you with gold-plated nanocells that withheld the poison. The gold made it where the poison never actually comes in contact with your blood stream. Each individual cell has a small receiver, like that of an antenna for a TV. A transmitter was created which sent a signal to each individual receiver. When a signal was sent to the nanocells, the gold covering dissolves and the poison is released into your blood stream." Jeb finished his explanation, and Max and I were speechless. I thought about what he said and it all made since. It did explain most of what was happening. Except for a few things._

"_Wait. If this poison is what kills us, then why does take two weeks for it to work." I questioned._

"_Well it's not an instant-kill type of poison. Each nanocell has varied levels of thickness of gold plates on them. After the signal is sent to the nanocells, but the varied levels of thickness takes varied amounts of time to dissolve. The poison gradually makes the heart work harder and harder. It raises your blood pressure, pulse rate, and many of other problems dealing with cardiovascular system. However, the poison will not kill you unless all of it is in your system. Eventually, when the poison is fully released, the heart overworks itself which results in cardiac arrest, in which no one could possibly survive. And to answer your next question I do not know how the expiration dates appear. That was the last thing added to the solution that was injected into each of you and I was not part of the team who developed it."_

"_So why was this even invented?" Max asked._

"_To serve the purpose it is serving right now, that you would become a threat to the Itex Corporation or that you were a failure in Itex's eyes. Which you are all considered both at the present." Jeb responded._

"_Then why did you kill Angel and Gazzy first?" I asked angrily asked, they were too young to die for no reason._

"_The Director thought of them as the least competent and the least useful of all you." Jeb said matter-of-factly. _

"_So who has this transmitter?" Max questioned. I could almost feel the anger she was giving. She had death glare on Jeb now, I knew if he said one thing wrong she would go all out on him._

"_The director does, she's the one who came up with the idea of injecting each genetic experiment with these 'expiration dates'. She was going to keep all of you alive for a few more years until you and Nudge almost killed her two years ago. Max, you really pissed her off, that's was the only reason you've been here."_

"_So your saying that because the Director got a lil PMS after what I did, were all going to die." Max retorted._

"_Yes Maximum, you and Nudge's actions are what caused this. What do you think would happen if you tried to kill someone like, the President of the United States?" Jeb asked and Max and I shrugged so he went on, "Well you would either have life in prison or be killed by the secret service on site. Now imagine the President with much more power than anyone else that is currently alive and who will easily kill anyone who gets in their way or massively embarrasses them, while they attempt to become the dictator of the world, as we know it. That would be the director." Jeb finished, almost out breath. _

_I thought about what he said again, and he was right. You do not do something like that to someone with so much power. I looked over at Max and she was shocked. I could understand why, she was part of the reason of why this was happening. She was going into the same state in which she started barely an hour ago. Reclusive and depressed, like she could not do anything else to help the situation she was in. We were both sitting against the wall on the ground so I pulled her closer to me so my mouth was only centimeters from her ear._

"_You couldn't have known. There was nothing you could of done to stop this. Eventually this would have happened anyway." I whispered and I saw her give a small nod in agreement. Then she looked up through her tears again._

"_Why are you telling us this, is there something we can do to stop all of this." she asked._

"_Yes, there is. The director had a vaccine developed that stopped this process from progressing. It disables the self-destruction mechanism of the gold covering, which of course stops it from dissolving any further. However, it must be given within the first week of the expiration date appearing because enough of the poison is in your system to kill you eventually. It will just take a lot longer for the poison to cause death." Jeb replied. _

_I felt the weight come off my soldiers, at least some of it. Even if I brought Gazzy and Angel here, there was no way they could of lived. I did not know about their expiration dates until nine days after they appeared. But there was still plenty of weight left, Nudge had told us about hers two days after she got hers. She could have been saved if we came here sooner. I decided to stop thinking about, no use in blaming myself for things I cannot change. _

"_So we're going to have to get this vaccine from her ourselves," Max asked knowingly, standing up from where she was sitting. Her face now only inches away from Jebs, tears still shimmering off her cheeks._

"_Of course." Jeb said with a slight smile._

"_I couldn't have guessed, god forbid if you had to sacrifice anything." Max implied sarcastically. Jeb looked hurt but had a look of sympathy on his face._

"_Maximum… I have sacrificed more than you could imagine." Jeb stated solemnly. With that, he turned and walked out of the room._

An attendant had led us to this bedroom for a few minutes, to let us catch up on our sleep. From what I could tell, we would need it. I could not sleep of course; too much was happening for sleep. Max stirred in her sleep again, and I stroked her hair softly. She slowly stopped moving and went even deeper into the realms of unconsciousness. Before I even had time to comprehend anything more, I heard two voices from far down the hallway outside of the room. One was Iggys and the other was Jebs. Iggy was back.


	5. The Unpleasant Reunion

I walked down the long hallway with Jeb, only talking when answering one of his questions. He did not have many, just how long ago Nudge died and when I got my expiration date. A few other random questions about the rest of the flock. I could have been here an hour ago but I took my time on getting here. What was the use in racing to this place? I had even stopped by Starbucks to grab an espresso to wake myself up some; I had only slept about an hour last night. Note to self: a 12 shot espresso will wake you up. Knowing that Nudge was going to die when awakened had made me not want to sleep. I wanted that feeling of her light body in my arms to last forever, to feel her soft skin on the tip of my fingertips. I prolonged last night as long as I could, but my body eventually succumbed to its most basic necessity. Jeb finally stopped and opened a door slowly, telling me to go inside as he followed. As I walked in, I heard two people getting up across the room.

"Hey man." Fang said coolly.

"Hey Iggy." Max called, seeming somewhat depressed. By the way, she responded, she would be a terrible greeter at Wal-Mart.

"That's how I you greet someone you haven't seen in two years. Damn, maybe I should leave and come back in five years. I might get a better reaction." I joked.

"Sorry, just been a long day for me. All of my surprise reactions were already used today. Had a lot to take in." she replied understandingly. Of course it had been, would be for me to. In addition, she was handling it better than I was right now.

"Yeah I get it, don't worry about it." I told her, stepping forward until I felt my knees touch the side of a bed.

"So Nudge is...," she insinuated.

"Yeah, she died a few hours ago." I responded sadly.

"I'm so sorry Iggy, I know about how close you two had gotten." she said supportively.

"Thanks" I simply stated.

"Max, I believe you have something to tell Iggy." Jeb said, announcing his presence for the first time. Max

"Iggy I think you should sit down, I have a lot to tell you." Max said. Therefore, I did as she said and sat on the edge of the bed with them. She did have a lot to tell me. About twenty minutes later, she finished her explanation. I could not believe it, this was all a result of Itex. The corporation that took away almost everything that would make life worth living, did this too. They took me from my parents, from a normal life, my eyesight, Angel, Gazzy, and now Nudge. The thing that upset me the most was that I could have saved Nudge. She could still be alive if we took her here a week ago. I would have never had to watch Nudge die.

*****

I watched Iggy just sit there, staring at the bed spread for about five minutes. His facetious nature draining from him, but I had been surprised it had been there to begin with. His whole outlook had surprised me, I was proud of him. I was proud of both him and Fang. They were both getting through this pretty well. They might have known this for a while, but still. I studied Iggy now; his calm appearance was starting to fade. His face started to redden and the slight smile was turning into a flat line. He got up and went to Jeb, whispering something. Jeb guided him to the bathroom; Iggy went in and closed the door silently behind him.

"He just needs some time alone." Jeb said, noticing our surprised looks.

"Oh ok." I replied.

"Max I think I need to apologize for the comment I made earlier. I just that I realized that you still don't get how much this affects everyone around you and not just yourself." Jeb said apologetically.

"What do you mean by 'I still don't get'. I've been 'getting' it for a while." I retorted

"Well then that worries me; you must think you're more superior. Max this is no time to develop a god-complex." Jeb told me, that made me madder.

"I don't think I'm superior, I know I'm superior. At least to you I am." I spat back.

"No**,** you're not. Right now we're equals," he said back.

"That's one thing we'll never be," I retorted.

"Max, right now we're both in the same situation. We've both been in the same situation for sixteen years." Jeb responded.

"But where were you before this huh, I bet your childhood was pretty pleasant. You probably got to hang with friends and graduate high school. You went to college and got a career you dreamed of having. Me, Jeb. I won't ever get to do anything I may have dreamed of doing. I never got a choice in any of this, unlike you." I stated, surprisingly calm I must add, back.

"Your right, but you still have to do this Max. You still have to save the world whether you like it or not." he calmly stated.

"And why do I have to save this world. This world is not worth saving. This god damn world has been saved once, and it responded by throwing me in a fucking isolation tank for two years. Screw this world; it doesn't deserve to be saved._ Especially _by me." I countered his response.

"This isn't the time to feel sorry for yourself." he simply came back with.

"Then when is the right time Jeb. I'd be happy to know." I told him shortly. Unsurprisingly Jeb had no response. I laid down onto my back and covered my face with my hands. I heard Jeb turn in leave, closing the door behind him. A few seconds later, I heard Iggy in the bathroom, punching the walls violently.

"You okay?" Fang asked as I rose slowly up again, balancing my torso on my arms.

"Yeah," I replied glancing at the bathroom door, "can't say the same for Iggy though."


	6. Iggy's Breakdown

I heard Jeb close the door behind me and stepped cautiously forward. I walked a few feet forward and found what I thought was the toilet. I reached out and pushed the cover down, then sat down. Not letting my emotions get the best of me just yet, I took Nudge's iPod out of my pocket. I held down the top button, which I knew was the menu button. Scrolling with the touch wheel, I got to the bottom of the list of options and pressed the center, knowing it was the song shuffler. Unwinding the headphones from around the iPod, I stuffed the ends into my ears. Letting the music just fill my head, trying to force my own thoughts out.

_I close my eyes and I smile  
Knowing that everything is alright  
To the core  
So close that door  
Is this happening?_

It was a cool song so far, sounded like it would take my mind off all of this.

_My breath is on your hair  
I'm unaware  
That you opened the blinds and let the city in  
God, you held my hand  
And we stand  
Just taking in everything._

Nudge came into my head , I couldn't help it.

_And I knew it from the start  
So my arms are open wide  
Your head is on my stomach  
And we're trying so hard not to fall asleep  
Here we are  
On this 18th floor balcony.  
We're both flying away._

When they mentioned flying, I could not keep myself under control anymore.

_So we talked about mom's and dad's  
About family pasts  
Just getting to know where we came from  
Our hearts were on display  
For all to see  
I can't believe this is happening to me_

_And I raised my hand as if to show you that I was yours  
That I was so yours for the taking  
I'm so yours for the taking  
That's when I felt the wind pick up_  
_I grabbed the rail while choking up  
These words to say and then you kissed me..._

Tears started to roll down my face

_I knew it from the start  
So my arms are open wide  
Your head is on my stomach  
And we're trying so hard not to fall asleep  
Here we are  
On this 18th floor balcony...  
We're both flying away._

_And I'll try to sleep  
To keep you in my dreams  
'til I can bring you home with me  
I'll try to sleep  
And when I do I'll keep you in my... dreams_

I would always keep her in my dreams, always.

_I knew it from the start  
So my arms are open wide  
Your head is on my stomach  
And we're trying so hard not to fall asleep  
So here we are  
On this 18th floor balcony, yeah_

_I knew it from the start  
My arms are open wide  
Your head is on my stomach  
No, we're not going to sleep_

_Here we are  
On this 18th floor balcony... we're both..  
Flying away_

The song faded out into silence. I just sat there for a minute, trying to clear my head again. Ito tried to compose myself before I went back out. I did not want any of them to see me like this. This song had seemed like I had written it. When I was about to take the headphones out, the music started up again.

_I lost a piece of me in you;  
I think I left it in your arms.  
I forget the reasons I got scared,  
But remember that I cared quite a lot._

Again, the thoughts of Nudge surged through my brain.

_You see but lately I've been on my own.  
Yeah one, but one by choice.  
You see, thats a first for me,  
There's only me, yeah theres only me,  
And now I realize for once,  
It's just me.  
It's just me.  
It's just me,  
And I'll find a way to make it,  
There's no one left to stop me.  
Here I go.  
Can we take it from the top?_

_So why so long?  
So sad, I wanna be strong.  
Don't try to take this from me.  
I'm already spent living half my life undone  
So why so long?_

Fresh tears started to roll down my face.

_So sad, I wanna be strong.  
Don't try to take this from me.  
I've already spent my life living half undone._

_I've been talking to my aunts and uncles, mom and dad again.  
I've been finding out that I have what this world calls friends.  
I've tried to push them all away,  
They push me back and wanna stay  
And that's one good thing I have._

I may have not been talking to my relatives again (they still thought I was their retirement fund), but I had friends. Moreover, right now I was, like the song said, pushing them away. I hoped they would push back.

_I'm gonna feel a peace in me,  
I'm gonna feel at home.  
I'm gonna make this cloud above me disappear, be gone.  
I wanna feel a punch inside, my heart beat on the floor.  
I don't wanna hurt no more._

_Yeah it's just me.  
It's just me  
And i'll find a way to make it.  
There's noone left to stop me.  
Here i go, can we take it from the top?_

More tears come out than with the last song, the last one wasn't telling me exactly how I felt. The truth in all this was nearly too much to bare for me. I felt like psychopath now, crying because of some random song's words. However, I did not care about how I appeared to anyone else.

_So why so long?  
So sad, I wanna be strong.  
Don't try to take her from me.  
I've already spent my life living half undone._

_So why so long?  
So sad, i wanna be strong.  
Don't try to take her from me.  
I've already spent my life living half undone._

_I used to be the one who won before.  
I used to smile but don't no more.  
I'm living just to watch it all go by_.

The song held more truth in its lyrics than anything I had heard in my life, considering all the lying scientists who have controlled my entire life. The last lyric was even spot on, I was living just to watch it all go by. Wait?! What was that last thought? Did I just think that? I took out the headphones and tossed the iPod onto the floor. I had almost convinced myself that the rest of my life would be without purpose. I could not just give up trying, and I would not for sure now. Not when I had Nudge to avenge, not when I still had to help save myself and the rest of the flock from our own upcoming demise. We had all came too far for me to give in now. As I tried to stop crying, I got up and searched for the iPod. On my hands and knees, I scanned the ground lightly with my fingers. I continued the search until my head lightly bumped the door, the iPod still lost somewhere along the floor.

My sadness turned into anger, my tears turned from being those belonging to depression to that of rage. I started to punch the door with my fist, standing up along the way. I exchanged beating the door to beating the walls. Trying to get all of my pent up emotions out, I continued to go along the walls. I was punching walls for many reasons. For that song persuading my emotions, for Itex taking away Nudge, for Itex taking away my eyesight, for Itex torturing me for all of those years, for Itex taking away any means of having a normal and happy life. I continued to violently hit the walls until I punched the mirror. I could pummel drywall and wood without it hurting, but apparently not glass. I withdrew my hand quickly and stumbled back in surprise of the newly found pain. I continued to fall back until I fell back into a bathtub. I laid back in the tub, cradling my bloodied fist. I cherished the feeling of the blood pulsating out quickly. I then the door fly open, I slowly stopped crying yet again. Footsteps rushed in, two voices cursing under their breath.

"Oh my god, Iggy." was all Max said. Max and Fang picked me up, and carried me to the next room. They sat me down on the bed and Max sat beside me, whispering something to Fang. Fang nodded and went back into the bathroom. "I know how hard it must be for you right now." Max consoled me.

"No you don't. You don't know what it's like to have everything taken away from you." I retorted back.

"Actually, I do." she calmly stated back. He felt guilty now, she had had everything taken away from her for the last two years.

"Sorry, I didn't mean..." he started, until she cut him off.

"I get it, Iggy. Just try and relax, I don't want you to bleed out any faster." Max advised. A few seconds later Fang came back with a first aid kit and Max opened. When she patted his wound with the alcohol soaked gauze, I barely reacted. I barely felt any pain right now. She continued the first aid until she came to a cut on the top of my hand. I heard her mutter "shit" under her breath.

"What?" I asked worriedly.

"Nothing, you just got a pretty deep cut on. I think I can stop the bleeding but I'll need to give you some stitches later." I sighed, relieved it was not serious.

"When did you learn first aid, I always thought I was the doctor?" I asked.

"I guess from you,w atching you do it to all of us before I was taken." she replied, and I nodded. A few minutes later, she was finished. "So why'd you do it Iggy?" she asked.

"I don't really know, guess I wasn't thinking at the time." I tried to explain.

"You weren't thinking," she said mockingly, " Jesus, Iggy, you scared the hell out of me. When I came in I thought you were trying to kill yourself."

"You know I would never..." I began, but again she cut me off.

"Yeah, I know but I've already lost so many of you and...and just don't scare me like that again. Ok?" she said depressingly, I could tell she was on the verge of tears.

"Don't worry I won't Max, I promise." I responded, feeling even guiltier than before.

"Good." she bluntly replied.

"Good." I heard Fang mumble agreeably across the room, too quietly for even Max to hear. I felt even worse, Fang had been worried too. My fist started to hurt now, the adrenaline must have blocked out all the pain for the last few minutes. I let out a small grunt to release some of the building pain. Max must have heard because she picked something up out of the first aid. I then heard a couple of pills pour out and someone come forward. Max mumbled something to Fang, she took something from him and grabbed my right hand. Forcing two pills into it.

"Here's two Ibuprofen. Might not take all the pain away but should take care of most of it. Here's some water." she said, probably holding out a glass. I held out my other hand and she pushed the glass into it. I popped the pills in my mouth and took a swig of water, swallowing the capsules easily. When I finished I started to talk.

"So, since I'm done throwing my tantrum, how the hell are we going to get these 'vaccines'?" I asked, doing the whole quote-my-own-words-with-my-fingers thing.

"Don't worry. I think I've got a plan." Max re-assured me.


	7. Contemplation and Rememberance

"Don't worry. I think I've got a plan." I re-assured him. Iggy laid back down on the bed, giving a relieved sigh. "Just get some sleep, you're going to need it if we're going to do this today." He rolled over on the bed and seemed to just pass out right there. I could hear Fang walk over and next to me. He stopped and just stood there silently behind me, watching Iggy.

"Plan?" he remarked sarcastically.

"Shut it Fang, I'll have one eventually." I told him shortly back.

"Whatever." he said back. He always was the talkative one. He came slightly closer and started to rub my shoulders. His fingers were light on the top of my shoulders, they massaged the tension out of my body gently. Giant weights seemed to be taken off them, like the unknown stress had been resting right there. And now it was being dissolved by his fingertips. "So...what was so damn important earlier?" Fang asked simply. My relaxed neck suddenly tensed back to its usual state. I had completely forgotten about being in the isolation tank. I had completely forgotten the last two torturous years, about my epiphanies that I had had in that dark abyss. I wanted to tell him now more than ever, that I did love him. That every time he kissed me, I had wanted to kiss back.

However, the reasons for not going any further in our relationship still stood. Back then, if he died I could not have been able to go on. Yes, he could have died either way. Nevertheless, if we had grown closer, it would have intensified the effects of losing him. Plus it made everything more complicated. Back then, it would have made saving the world harder if I had him constantly on my mind. It just added more obstacles if I had to worry about a relationship at the same time as saving humanity.

Now it was almost the same situation, but (to me) this one was much harder. We had to save ourselves. I knew I would never be truly happy until I was with my second half. However, you never hear of anyone who is happy while saving his or her own life, along with two others. "Max?" a voice asked, and I was snapped out of my thoughts finally. I must have looked like an idiot, just staring straight ahead for the last five minutes.

"Don't worry about it, it's not important right now." I said, still looking ahead.

"You sure?." he asked. I thought over my decision again, and decided that I had made the right choice.

"Yeah," I assured him. He was still massaging my shoulders so I let it take its former effect. His actions melting away all the confusion and pain yet again. His fingers manipulating the muscles on my clavicle, the pressure on them steadily releasing. I was back into the state I was in before, uncaring of what lie ahead. I just wanted these feelings to last forever. The ones of carelessness, relaxation, and extraction of negativity. In an unknown amount of time later, he eventually did stop though. It took a few moments for me to regain the ability to talk. When I finally returned to Earth, I noticed he was now sitting beside me on the bed. I must have been really out of it yet again. God I seriously need to stop with the zoning out. "Any ideas of how we'll get the vaccine?"

"Nope, but Jeb usually has something up his sleeve." he responded. Wow, an actual sentence, impressive. I just sat there for a few minutes until a thought crossed my mind. I tried to suppress it but the thought posed a question I needed answered. The thought just kept nagging and nagging at conscience until finally I gave into it.

"Fang...can I ask you something?" I asked cautiously.

"Shoot." he said simply.

"I just wanna to know if they...did they suffered?" I questioned him, slightly afraid of the answer. His body tensed awkwardly at the question, but then he quickly relaxed.

"I'm not sure about Angel; I was off getting firewood with Gazzy when she died. But Gazzy didn't, he was a little scared but he didn't suffer at all." he said quietly. I grew relieved at that, it was the least I could hope for. "Why don't you get some more sleep?"

"I don't need it, that's all I've been doing for the last two years. First time I've actually been awake in way too long." I countered.

"Whatever you say Max. I'm gonna go take a shower." he told me back. I nodded to let him know I understood, he grabbed his backpack and went into what was left of the bathroom. I waited a few minutes until I heard the shower turn on, and then I drifted off into my own thoughts. Knowing that sleep would be an impossibility now.

Fang POV

I closed the door silently behind me, avoiding stepping on the debris that littered the floor. I scanned the room's appearance, wondering how in just a couple minutes so much damage could be done with two fists. The walls were made of dry wall so each time Iggy had punched the wall it left a clear indention in it. The wall on the left side of the bathrooms had nothing on it except about twenty holes until you I saw. I looked down on the floor and noticed a dusty white luminescent glow was coming off it. I glanced up at the overly large mirror above the sink, which stretched out over the barriers of the counter the sink was withheld in. At the edge of the humongous mirror, there was an shattered impression of half a fist. The mirror withheld dry blood within the cracks. More evaporating blood was splattered across the sink and dripped along the surface of linoleum floor. Finally, it ended its trail by staining the side of the bathtub/shower on the opposite wall and forming a red puddle in the bottom of it. I walked over to the short counter and turned the water on in the sink, rinsing the blood out of it before splattering water on my face. Without drying off, I looked back in the mirror and I thought of Gazzy. Max had brought him back into my thoughts, not that I actually forgot. I started slowly remembering the day Gazzy died. Before I knew it, I was re-watching that scene in my mind.

_Flashback_

_I sat by the pile of sticks, trying to make a fire with the little amount I had. I opened up the Zippo lighter that I had swiped off of someone along with their wallet, and lit it again. Pressing the flame down onto the sticks, it finally lit. It wouldn't last long, Gazzy had to hurry up with getting firewood._

"_Gazzy! Hurry the hell up!" I yelled out. _

"_I'm coming, hold your horses!" I heard him shout back in the distance. I sighed and looked back over to Iggy and Nudge, who were sitting by each other on the ground about twenty feet away. Iggy held a few sticks, while Nudge held the thirty pack of hot dogs that she had just gotten from a local grocery store. They were leaning against each other, whispering small talk to each other. I saw Nudge give a sly smile after a comment that Iggy had told her, it was nice to see them slightly happy again. We were in the middle of some random city park in the middle of north California, and so far, it was pretty nice here. Never too hot, never too cold. It would be perfect if Angel was here. If only she was here. Forcing the coming sadness back down inside me, I heard Gazzy appear through the thick foliage with a large quantity of sticks in his hands. I almost laughed when I saw that the pile in his hands almost went over his head. He came toward me while I was wondering how he could see._

"_Is this enough?" he asked._

"_Yeah man that's good." I answered, and I heard him sigh in relief. He never gotten that much before but I knew why he changed his normal intake. Angel was always his helper in getting the firewood and she had died four days ago. He took it the worst of all of us for the last few days, today was the first time he actually talked to any of us. Personally, even though he had taken it the worse, I thought he had taken it very well . He kept walking forward, balancing the wood in his hands. He was about fifteen feet away now. I looked back down at the fire, which amazingly was still crackling and sending sparks into the air. I kept looking into the flames until I heard logs falling onto the ground and I glanced up. Gazzy was on the ground not moving, his hands still positioned like he was holding the wood. I got up and ran over to him, Nudge and Iggy close behind me. When I got to hime, I turned him over from his side to his back. "What's wrong?" I questioned and he did not answer. "Come on get up.'_

"_I can't." he muttered. I cursed under my breath and Iggy kneeled down on Gasman's other side, his right. He put his fingers silently onto his neck, pulling them out after a few seconds. _

"_His pulse, it's skyrocketing." Iggy told us. I nodded and I looked down at Gazzy. He looked scared, so I grabbed his hand. Gazzy slightly turned his head, showing me that he was surprised. I did not let go though, and he looked slightly calmer. _

"_Iggy..." Gazzy muttered and Iggy got slightly closer and grabbed his hand._

"_Yeah man I'm here," he said in quiet consolation._

"_Thanks man." he whispered._

"_For what?" Iggy questioned._

"_Everything...for being there for me...for always helping me out." Gazzy answered_

"_No need to thank me bro, you've done just as much for me." Iggy countered. Gazzy gave a slight nod to that. Gazzy grasped my hand harder, and I returned it. That's all that happened between us, that's all that needed to be done. A few more seconds went by until Nudge burst out crying. After a few more moments she became a little quieter._

"_Why are you crying?" Gazzy simply asked her, slightly raising his head._

"_B..because I don't want you t..to go. Y...you're like my brother Gazzy. I don't want to be left here without you, who will know how to always annoy me." she answered. Gazzy gave a slight laugh and responded._

"_You'll get used to it." he said calmly back._

"_Ok" she simply stated, wiping away her own tears. Iggy grabbed her hand with his free hand, trying to consol here also. Gazzy grunted slightly and laid back down. I saw him arch his back a little, feeling his pulse through his wrist rising even more. Then his pulse just stopped and his tensed body relaxed dramatically. Gazzy was dead. Nudge leaned over him and closed his eyelids with her left hand, kissing his forehead and whispering something to him as she did so. She went to Iggy and hugged him tenderly, while I still held Gazzy's hand. I let go of it while praying, to whatever higher power that was in the sky that he was in a better place._

_Flashback over_

I snapped out of my own thoughts, went over, and turned the bathtub/shower on. I rinsed the blood off the sides and in the middle, and I got in when the shower was hot. A few minutes later, I turned off the stream of water, and then I heard the door open in the other room.


	8. Planning

I snapped out of my incoherent day dreaming when I heard a door slam. I looked up and saw Jeb standing there with a confused look in his eyes. Sitting up slowly, I drew my legs up onto the bed since they had been hanging off the end of it from the knee down. When I finally sat up properly, I had drawn my legs up into my chest and had my arms resting around my shins. Looking up at Jeb again, I noticed his eyes were drawn to Iggy's bandaged hands.

"What happened to his hands?" Jeb simply asked.

"He decided to renovate the bathroom for you. By the way, he left the redecoration up to you." I replied.

"Oh, ok. I'll have Itex's busy team of interior designers get right on that." Jeb retorted with the same amount of sarcasm.

"Great." I responded shortly. Just then, Fang came through the bathroom door, toweling off his head with his left hand. When he got to the bed, he set down his bag on the ground beside it, which had been in the clutch of his right hand. Then he came over and sat beside me, waiting patiently as if Jeb was fixing to start 'story time'. "So, why are you here now?" I questioned.

"Well we have to plan out how you'll get the vaccinations; you can't just barge in there and take them." Jeb inquired.

"Why not?"

"Because she keeps them in a personal safe in her office, we have to figure out how you all will retrieve them."

"Is she in there right now?" I asked.

"Actually yes, she just arrived back from a meeting at Itex's Singapore branch. The only reason you've been able to be out your isolation tank is because of her absence. That's why we need to hurry up and get the vaccinations, she is going to check-up on you in half an hour." I nodded and began to think of a way to get the vaccines in that short amount of time.

The thing we would normally do would be to wait until she was out of the office, go in, and try to crack the safe ourselves. However, that would not work this time; the element of surprise was the only thing we had that would help us now. The director would know she was out and have the premises searched instantly. Being subtle was definitely not the way to go this time, so we needed to do the opposite. A plan slowly formed in my mind, not the best plan but a plan to say the least.

"I've got a plan, but I'll need a couple of things before we can get started." I told Jeb.

"Go on."

"I'll need two guns, preferably small ones. The type that's easy to conceal."

"No, no guns. Besides you can easily take down anyone without a weapon." Jeb protested.

"That's true Jeb but we don't have time to rely on our abilities to kick their asses. We need something more efficient, more threatening than our own two arms and legs." I countered. Jeb looked like he was thinking hard about for a few seconds, and then answered. A gun was a lot to ask for but I felt it was something that we could not do without this time.

"Fine, I will get you and a Fang a Glock 23 when you are all ready to go." Jeb said.

"What about me?" a voice asked behind us. We all turned and looked at a yawning Iggy, who had a questioning expression on his face as he leaned back on his elbows. I had been surprised he had slept the whole time, but then again he could have easily been awake the whole time also.

"Yeah give the blind guy a gun, ingenious idea." I muttered loudly to no one in particular. Iggy laughed at that.

"But it doesn't hurt to try though, does it." Iggy comically stated. I gave a small smile and I saw Fang's lip slightly twitch. Could that of been a smile?

"So what is your plan Maximum?" Jeb queried.

"Leave that to me, just give me the location of the director's office and we will take care of the rest." I advised Jeb.

"Whatever you say Maximum, just remember it's your life at stake here."

"So now all that needs to be done is for you to go get those guns and give us the directions to her office, and I believe we're good to go. Right?" I said, ending with a question while glancing at Iggy and Fang. When they both nodded, I turned to Jeb and nodded at him.

"I'll be back in a few minutes with what you need." Jeb said and turned around. When he had walked quickly out of the doorway, both Fang and Iggy started to stare at me.

"So what's the plan?" Iggy asked bluntly.

"She doesn't have one." Fang simply stated.

"What?!" Iggy yelled.

"I've got a plan don't worry. The plan is too..." I began but Fang cut me off.

"Is to storm into the office and hold up the director until she gives us the safe's combination."

"Yeah that's the basics of the plan." I said sheepishly.

"Oh ok I can live with that one." Iggy replied, slightly calmer.

"Yeah 'the plan'." Fang muttered sarcastically.

"Think of a better one then." I threatened to both of them

"Hey I said I would live with it." Iggy defended.

"Whatever, the point is we have a plan to go on now and we have a possibility of saving ourselves." I informed them.

"True." Fang shortly replied. I was glad they agreed with at it least, I had my doubts but I thought that it was the best way. This was the only plan that was possible with our time constraints. A few seconds passed and Jeb came back.

"Here are your weapons." Jeb stated as he showed the two small pistols in each hand. I looked at them and almost laughed.

"Dang those are definitely small." I told him, trying to withhold the coming laughter. A few seconds passed and I managed to accomplish the small feat.

"Well that's what you asked. Like I said before these are Glock 23s. These particular guns are what you usually see law enforcement officials pulling from their ankles because of the size."

"Oh ok." was all I said.

"Ok first I should show you how to operate it. This is the safety; you put it on when it's not being used and take it off when you need to use it. This is the magazine; you eject it by doing this. The magazine only holds thirteen rounds so do not get trigger-happy. The rest is just common sense, point and shoot," he quickly told us, while demonstrating everything he was telling us. Fang and I nodded in understanding and Jeb gave us each a gun. Both of us tucked our guns safely into back of our pants, near the small of our back

"God I can't believe I'm giving a gun to my own daughter." Jeb muttered.

"And I can't believe my 'dad' let me have avian DNA grafted into me but that just proves we both have weak faiths." I mumbled back, loud enough for everyone to here. Jeb looked offended but not for long.

"Just don't made me regret this Maximum," he told me and I must of gave some show of compliance towards him because he looked slightly calmer after that. When the moment ended, Iggy popped in another question.

"So are you gonna tell us where her office is?" Iggy asked.

"Oh almost forgot. When you get out into hallway outside of this room, you will turn right. Then you will take a left into the first hallway you come to and you will eventually find some elevators. I will give you key so you can use them and you will go up to the twenty-fourth floor. When you get in there you will take a left, a right, another left and you will be at the director's door. From there on is up to you." Jeb he informed us, in the same fast pace as before.

"So are we done here?" Fang questioned.

"Yes, you are free to go. But you better hurry, you only have fifteen minutes." Jeb told us, he gave a key to Fang, and we began to walk toward the door. "And Maximum" I turned around when he spoke, "be careful." I turned back and went through the door, right behind Iggy and Fang. While walked down the dark dimly hallway, I was wondering what time it really was. Time had not really been any matter of importance, least until now.

For the last two years, I really had not been paying attention to time. I had had all the time in the world, never had to hurry up and accomplish anything really. Now the fate of all three of us relied on the time span of fifteen minutes, actually now thirteen. I looked up and saw the elevators only a couple of feet in front of me. As soon as I arrived Fang inserted the key swiftly into the hole and the elevator door slid swiftly opened a few seconds later. We stepped in and pressed the button for the twenty-fourth floor. As the doors slid shut, I prepared myself for the upcoming battles.


	9. Next to the Last Battle

The elevator started towards our destination, it accelerated slowly as it increased the distance from our previous location. I breathed deeply and slowly to try to calm my anxieties, but they were steadily building. Three lives relied on me; there was _no _option in failing this mission that had bestowed itself upon me. I had already failed to keep three of my flock members alive, in what universe could I keep the remaining two breathing.

"You alright Max?" Iggy asked. I looked up, over my shoulder at him, nearly surprised he noticed. Nearly.

"Yeah I'm fine, let's just do this and be done with it." Fang looked at me also when I said this, and they both gave signs of agreement. I took the gun that Jeb gave me out, mainly to get ready for when the door opened back up. The real reason I wanted the gun was that I was very unsure about my fighting abilities now. You cannot really keep in shape in a place with seemingly no stable substance to step on, much less the space. I did not know how high I could kick or even how powerful my punches were. When I noticed there were only two floors to go, I put the gun back into the back of my pants. I could at least see how well my fighting abilities were at the first of this.

The elevator gave a two toned beep and I tensed into a fighting stance, the two behind me following suit. The doors slid open, revealing a short narrow hallway. Right when I thought the pathway was clear, a guard appeared in the doorway, thrusting a pistol with a silencer forward. I went into action, trying to hit him in the nose with a high front snap kick. My hopes of having any flexibility were shattered, as my foot only hit him in the abdomen. Serendipity must have been with me though, because he was struggling to breathe. I must have hit him in the solo plexus, which would have temporarily knocked the breath out of him.

A few seconds later, he was nearly back to full height, throwing a closed fist towards my head. When the guard took his first step of progression into the elevator, Fang shuffled slyly forward, his right leg shooting a side thrust kick to his foe's neck. His foot digging into the man's larynx, the enemy's respiratory system stopping abruptly because of this fatal assault. We quietly left the elevator, leaving the man still silently slumping to the floor with his neck hanging abnormally to the side; I grabbed the guard's gun along the way.

I crept along the narrow hallway silently as the two behind me followed. The numerous doors that lined the hallway made me uneasy, as any of them could open to reveal another opponent to offer us more opposition to our current task. As I got to the first turn we had to make in this maze of hallways, another guard presented himself. He reached for the pistol that was sitting in a holster, but I grabbed my newly acquired weapon faster. I squeezed the trigger three times, and hit him twice. Once into the muscle of the guard's left shoulder, the other pierced through the right side of his face, about an inch under his eye. The man fell against the wall harshly and slowly slid down onto the floor with the fatal wound now hidden against the wall. I was very grateful for the silencer to say the least.

At first, I was relieved I had killed the guard before he could cause harm to anyone, but then I became ashamed. Ashamed that I had ended someone's life with so little effort, I was becoming no better than the people who created me. I thought of back when I was in captivation still, the last two years and the time before the six of us got out of the school. All the innocent lives that were taken because they were insufficient or considered obsolete. I became relieved again though, because I knew the dead guard was not an innocent life, he was actually an accessory to the genocide of the children that would never see daylight again.

"Max we need to keep moving, we don't have a lot of time." Fang whispered into my ear. I awoke from my thoughts yet again and noticed that the body was no longer leaning against the wall, but then I saw a trail of blood leading into a closed door about two feet away and my worrying ceased.

"Ok" I mumbled back. This time Fang was leading, he probably knew I was too busy thinking about other matters. We went to following Jeb's directions again, and for some reason, there were no more guards until the last hallway we turned came too. There were four guards standing naively there, each held some sort of sub automatic weapon. They did not seem to notice us at first but it did not take them long. We quickly had an unspoken agreement of how we would handle this situation, Fang would take two of them and Iggy and I would each take one each. Fang quickly whispered the details of the situation to Iggy, which Iggy gave a subtle nod to in response.

All the guards turned their weapons toward us but we had already progressed too far for their defense to stand a chance. By the time the guard I was taking on had raised his gun, I was standing only inches away from him. I gave a fast side snap kick to his right knee, the guard buckled from the pain. When he fell onto his knees I gave an elbow thrust to his temple, my guard was knocked out.

I looked to my other two alliances, Fang had knocked out one guard already and Iggy had his enemy sprawled out onto the floor as well. I looked back to Fang and he was finishing up on his second opponent. Fang punched the guard in the solo plexus and when the guard bent down at the waist in response, Fang grabbed the back of his head and brought his face sharply onto his knee. We had defeated all of the guards quickly and silently, if this were a war we were doing fairly well. The last battle was still ahead though. However, the battle was so close that it was fair to say it had just begun.


	10. The Interrogation

I stared at the ground for a couple of seconds, trying to take in our temporary victory. Someone else who had just accomplished such a feat they would say he or she felt joy, relief, maybe even superiority. I felt a rising tension, an increasing stress, a growing fear of what may come of us. Despite my pessimism, I did not cease our currently winning struggle. I simply took the gun that I had stolen out, and brought it a round in front of me.

I crouched down in front of the Director's door, while Fang stood on the right side and Iggy the left. Fang tried the doorknob to test if it was lock. It was not. We all tensed up yet again as Fang opened up the door, I saw two men sitting at one end of a desk and the Director at the other. I shot at the two men, not ceasing fire until the cartridge was empty. We all entered hurriedly, I slammed the door loudly after our entry for no apparent reason. The two men appeared dead; the Director was on the ground grasping at her new wound on her left shoulder.

I walked swiftly toward her with no hesitation and crouched down by the Director's side. This person was the cause of all of my tribulations and anxiety, This was the person who had locked me in an isolation for two years, something that nearly cause me to go insane, This manipulative bitch is the person who was responsible for _killing_ three member of my flock. I was not going to be gentle or kind to her, in no way was I going to comply with any of the bullshit threats she would most likely throw at me. She was going to pay for all the pain she had caused.

"Get up," I imperatively stated at her. Not _to_ her. _At _her. The Director barely showed any recognition of me, so I resorted to measures that were guaranteed to work. I grabbed her left arm harshly as she grunted in pain, and pulled her up into her own chair. "Where are the antidotes?" I asked her sharply. The Director slowly looked up at me, with a smirk on her face.

"What antidotes?" she replied sarcastically. She was playing games with me, the only thing I could do is play along with her. I reached around to the small of my back and grabbed the gun Jeb had given me. Since I had used one of the guard's gun the whole time I still had my very own fully loaded weapon. The Director's smirk disappeared from her face. She stared cautiously at my gun, barely blinking, but got slightly calmer quickly. I cocked the gun and took the safety off. I started to point it at her, but I just had thought of a more convincing approach. I shoved the gun forward right into the Director's wound on her shoulder. She cried out as I twisted and imprinted the barrel of gun into her flesh, I did not pull the gun back out until I saw her eyes begin to redden from the pain. When I did pull the gun back out of her injury, I steadily held it softly pressed upon where her heart would be. "Ready to talk now?" I questioned the Director.

"Alright Maximum, ask away." she said unemotionally but with a pained expression across her face.

"Where are the antidotes?" I inquired.

"Don't you want to know why you were put through these tribulations, Maximum? I mean I can see why you would just ask the most important things first but right now it's not like we don't have the time." She responded. I had to admit, the Director had a point.

"Ok, I'll go with your way for right now. Why did you do this to me?" I questioned her inquisitively.

"There is the first, most obvious reason. You embarrassed me back in Europe, when you attempted to kill me. Of course over time I had many more important reasons." She answered.

"Go on." I encouraged her threateningly.

"Well keeping you isolated also helped us analyze your psychological boundaries. Any normal person would have become insane in the isolation tank after mere hours. You, apparently, passed the test easily. Nevertheless, we had to know if you had any boundaries at all, that's some of the reasoning of keeping you here so long." The Director stated informatively.

"So the only reason I was here was to make sure I could survive doing absolutely nothing with absolutely no one? No offence but I believe that sounds like dumbest thing I've ever heard." I said with a hint of humor. God I missed insulting people, even if it was in this kind of situation.

"Maximum, being able to survive isolation is part of your mission." She responded.

"Saving the world being my mission, I assume." I deducted with a very confused apprehensiveness of what she meant.

"Exactly, Maximum. Ultimately, the last people on this planet will have a very similar genetic structure as you. At least I hope they will." She answered.

"Why would they have the same genetic structure as me?" I questioned.

"To be able to survive the end of the world." The Director shortly replied.

"And the end of the world being…" I drifted off, hoping she would continue.

"Ultimately, I don't know. However, I do know that it will most likely be either a nuclear winter or because of a global warming. Your genetic structures are built to survive both of these circumstances. However, the 'end of the world' will most likely result in long-standing isolation between one person to the next. If one cannot survive being alone, they more than likely will kill themselves due to the strenuous circumstances. Being able to survive physically will do no good if you can't survive psychologically." She concluded.

"So how am I saving the world? By staying alive and passing these 'tests'?" I asked

"Exactly Maximum." She replied for the second time.

"Ok I can understand that… but why did you kill Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel?" I questioned, trying to stop myself from losing control of myself. Just mentioning their names brought back too many memories. I noticed the Director's smirk again.

"Maximum, their very existence only caused more problems and they outlived their purpose." She stated factually. Jeb had been right with that reason at least. Right then I heard someone start to come forward but stopped immediately. Fang had his arm stiffly held out, blocking Iggy from coming any closer. Iggy looked enraged. I looked back at the Director.

"So now we have come full circle I believe. Where are the antidotes?" I interrogated her once again. The Director chuckled softly and began slightly to smile again. I began to slowly move the gun from in front of her and began to drag the gun lightly back to the hole in her shoulder. Right when I arrived at her injury, she began to talk once more.

"Over there," she pointed, "in that closet." She finally informed me. I heard someone shuffle slowly away and open a door. Since I never took my eyes off the Director, I did not know. I heard the same person kneel in front of what was probably the safe in which the antidotes were kept.

"It's here Max, the safe has both a key and a combination lock on it." Fang yelled. I nodded.

"Where's the key and what's the combination?" I asked the Director. She did not smile this time but did appear to be mildly amused. She got serious again when I barely pressed upon her wound.

"The key's in my left pocket." She told me. I forced my hand in her left pocket and indeed found a ring of keys. Once I had them, I asked another question.

"And the combination?"

"One thing at a time Maximum." She said with a smile. I did not feel like repeating my threat again so I complied for once. I turned around, letting my gun fall down and face the floor for the first time, and simply tossed my keys toward Fang. That was the worst mistake I could have made.


	11. Saving Ourselves

**A/N This chapter was posted previously but I decided to rewrite the first few paragraphs. I have also re-edited and re-written various parts of other chapters because I disliked some part of them. Enjoy this chapter, there will be another author's note at the end.**

"Max!" Fang yelled. The keys landed loudly at his feet. I focused all of my attention on Fang and he looked tense and determined. He was taking out his unused pistol. In my peripheral vision I noticed the director lifting up a gun and pointing it towards me. I jumped forward and rolled in front of her desk, I was quick but not quick enough.

I heard guns fire off from both sides. As I was jumping, a bullet pierced through middle of my right bicep. Slowly the red liquid stained my arm, I saw Fang laying on the ground on his left side holding onto his right thigh. His gun was outstretched with his other hand. He fired another shot and seized pulling the trigger. He nodded his head at me to signal it was over. I peered around the desk and checked if the director was still there.

She had a small pistol dangling from her hand and her chest slowly went up and down. Her left pants leg was pulled up revealing a holster. She was unconscious, blood seeping from holes in her lower abdomen, left shoulder, and one from a bullet that grazed the left side of her neck. I slowly stood up keeping pressure on my fresh wound, as did Fang. He struggled to stand and frowned slightly. His way of grunting in pain. Fang took his hand off of his thigh temporarily and I noticed a bullet had barely grazed his leg.

"God dammit." I muttered. That manipulative bitch had just tried to kill me. Again! I moved my eyes over to where Iggy was. He was lying stiffly upon the floor, making himself as flat as possible with his face planted into the carpet. "It's OK, Iggy. It's over." I assured him. He started to get up off the ground. Soon, we all started walking toward each other, me grabbing my arm along the way.

"What the hell happened?!" Iggy asked angrily.

"The director tried to kill Max," Fang informed Iggy, when turning to me he asked, "Are you OK?"

"I'll live." I said shortly. Great, I was answering questions just like Fang now. He was looking at me with concern in his eyes and glancing worriedly at my arm, but nonetheless remained silent. He knelt down to pick up the keys and got back up.

"Well we got half of the job done." He stated while having the keys in grasp. I got another idea.

"Iggy, do you think you crack the safe?" I asked with hope. He really was our only chance now. If he could not do it, then he would knowingly die. Fang and I's fate could still be in danger also. Iggy was contemplating an answer to my question

"I might be able to but I don't really know," he replied cautiously. I told Fang with body movements to lead Iggy to the safe, and he got the message. He limped away, guiding Iggy to his task. I turned away and quickly went to the task of checking each supposedly dead body for a pulse. I wanted to make sure that there would be no more surprises. No one in the room besides me, the remaining members of the flock, and the director were alive. I thought about killing the director but I could not go through with it.

When I was done checking with that, I heard Iggy curse loudly. I walked swiftly to his side. They had already found the correct key for the first lock and Iggy had failed his first attempt to open the combination lock.

"Hold on for a sec Iggy." I told him. Iggy backed his hand off the lock and I set it so the zero and the bold line on top lined up. "Take your time Ig, don't rush this." Iggy nodded and started his second attempt.

*****

I twisted the knob on the safe slowly, trying to feel the click of the first number. I had done this before but it took five tries to get it the last time. The last time though had been under less stressful circumstances. I twisted the dial even slower now, as I estimated I was at least half way through the wheel of marks and numbers. I leaned closer to the safe to try to hear the click set off. A second later, I felt a prominent jar in the lock and heard a soft click. First number down.

I kept one finger on one point of the lock and turned the dial with another finger, not stopping until both fingers were aligned perfectly again. I started on the second number even slower than the previous one, and leaned even closer. A few seconds later, I felt the same jar in movement and heard the annoying little tiny click. Second number down. I started going clockwise again with the same method as before.

The final click occurred. The last number was down. I took my hands off the lock abruptly and nodded slowly to show Max and Fang I was done, and then backed away a few inches. I heard a twist of the key, a turn of the handle, and the swing of the safe door opening. It was open.

*****

Iggy had done it. I could barely describe that momentary feeling of relief I had just had. It felt so good even to have _any_ sense of relief. All of my anger, resentment, and hatred seemed to flow out of me right at that moment. I felt as if I had been with Fang and Iggy all along and none of the people I had loved and cared about had met their demise. Even the hole my arm seemed to not hurt, least for a few seconds. Everything at that moment made me feel like I had a normal teenager's life.

Fang was holding some of the vaccinations. There were dozens of them in all, but only three were needed at this moment. Both of us, Fang and I, took one of the automatic injection things. I read the directions on the side of one of the injections. I pulled up Fang's sleeve, took the plastic thing off of the end, pressed other end harshly down onto his bicep (the needle was inside of it and came out when you pressed down on it) before Fang could say a word or present any objection.

I knew he had massive hatred of needles, no use in prolonging the experience for him. He repeated the process for me. I did the same task for Iggy. Fang stuffed some of the unused vaccinations into a thermos he had in his backpack; he took five in all. It was all the thermos could hold.

"What do we do now?" Iggy asked.

"I don't know, but maybe we should get out of here." I recommended. I walked over to the closed blinds that covered the window and raised them. There was no way in opening the window. I finally was hearing people rush down the hallway outside, Iggy probably hearing them long before me.

I hurriedly took my gun out again. I shot out five times in a large triangular pattern, to weaken the glass. I then put the gun in the small of my back, and jumped through the center of the triangle I had outlined with bullets, the glass collapsing with me.

The others followed me out into to the open air; I felt it rush quickly through my wings, something I had not experienced since I was fourteen years old. We flew fast towards somewhere... anywhere. I had no idea of what was next or where we were going, but at least we would live to see another day. We were all, at this moment, as free as a genetic mutant freak could be.

**A/N First I'm sorry for my prolonged absence. I just had no desire to write for a while, last night I actually had to re-read this story to get in the mood to write it. I am in the right mindset now so I will continue to end sooner or later. By the way, the more reviews you give me the more I will want to write this -hint hint-. **


	12. Recuperation

A/N Sorry for my prolonged absence; I've been having a busy time at school and work and etc. I wasn't intending this to be so short, but eh a chapters a chapter. Sorry for any minor grammatical and spelling errors, I do not have a beta. I just remembered that I have forgotten to put any disclaimer for this story up on any chapter.

**Disclaimer: Neither any of this story nor any of the chapters have characters belonging to me. They all belong to a Mr. James Patterson**

**

* * *

Have you ever jumped out of a multi-story building, and started flying as far away as you can get from said building. Then completely forgotten about the hole in your arm that blood is pulsating quickly through? I didn't think so. It had not been bleeding at all really before, but I guess the increase in my pulse rate did not help the fresh wound heal. I was flying at first, relieved to get away, to be free. I was getting dizzier and more light-headed by the second. My vision blurring, my wings stopped moving. Beginning to tumble through the air, I started hoping that this wasn't the end. As I let the world go black, I felt a warm pair of arms underneath my body.**

*****

Opening my eyes, I slowly looked around. I saw a book case filled with various novels on the left wall. A lamp in the corner dimly lighting the room. To my right a digital clock on a nightstand was illuminated and had the colon between numbers 9 and 18 flashing on and off repetitiously. Must be at night or else light would be streaming though the window that was to the right. Fang was asleep in a chair next to the bed and in front of the nightstand. I looked directly in front of the bed and saw half of an air mattress, the other half hidden from the bed. Iggy was laying on it entangled with a thin sheet and pillow underneath his head.

"Fang?" I whispered softly. His eyes shot open automatically at the moment I started annunciating his name. "What happened?"

"Lost too much blood from the gash in your arm. Took you to your Mom's," he quietly informed me. I nodded in response.

"Can you get me some water?" he nodded, got up, and left the room.

"Feelin' ok, Max?" Iggy asked from across the small bedroom. He was sitting on the side of his air mattress, his arms draped over his knees and his sightless eyes looking up at.

"So far so good." I answered slightly ambiguously. He looked deep in thought now as he looked down at his feet. His eyebrows furrowed as he bit his lower lip. "What is it, Iggy?"

"What? Nothing's wrong, why?" he asked. He really was not that good at lieing.

"Come on don't lie to me, what's wrong?" he looked back up with a sly smile but also accompanied by a tense, uncomfortable expression.

"It's just that....when Angel...when she died she asked me to make sure of something if we found you...still alive."

"Oh...what was it?"

"She told me to...make sure that you never give up, to never, never, never, never let you give up," he stopped for a few seconds then added, "and I didn't put emphasis on never, she did."

"Thanks Ig, I'm glad you told me," I said, slightly covering how truly grateful I was.

"Well now you know there's no way in hell you can give up now at least." he said with a grin.

"I know, and this goes both ways Iggy. " I informed him.

"I know," he replied while looking towards the right side of the room, his grin now only a slight smile, "I wouldn't want to now." Fang walked in a few seconds later with a glass of water, my mom and Ella following him in. I got out of the bed at the sight of them, a few seconds of dizziness pulsating through me while I walked towards my biological family. Ella basically ran over my Mom when she saw me. She jumped forth when she reached me, embracing me.

"Oh my God, Max, I didn't think I'd ever see you again." she whispered as she hugged me.

"I thought the same thing with you." I admitted. I let go of her and went to my mom. I wrapped my arms around her torso and neither of us said a word. After about a minute the silence was broken.

"Don't you ever do that to me again." she muttered in my ear.

"Don't worry, I'm not planning on it." I whispered in response. I did not bother telling here how I did not choose to be gone this long. I didn't see a point in arguing at this moment. We finally broke apart about a minute later.

"So what are we going to do now?" Iggy questioned. I really did not know what we were going to do. I mean we're alive, I was pretty ecstatic with that big fact.

"You could stay here!" Ella advised eagerly. As I feigned a smile I tried to think of an alternative. Was there really anywhere worth leaving this for?

* * *

A/N Now if you like this let me know, and if you hate it also let me know. I do have a few ideas of what could be next, but if you have like an idea of your that would be a great angle for this story to go I might think of doing it also. I would love to promise a quick update but of course that would be a definitive lie. I'll just say this, the more reviews I receive the more likely I will update faster. Please though, no reviews saying "Good stry, updte sunner." Were mostly all writers here so we can all at least spell worth a damn.


	13. Author's Note Fate of this Story

First off, I have to apologize to all of you. Or at least, the few (if any) readers that have been waiting so long for me to update this story. It has been ten months since I have posted a new chapter. Now the first reason for my prolonged absence from this story is simple. I graduated high school last June and my senior year was hectic. I was planning to finish this over the last few months, but my summer has been even busier (if that's even possible).

My second reason is the most important, in my eyes. I am stuck on where to go from here. I have had most of the next chapter written for ages, but after that I am not sure what would work and still be exciting. Since I've waited so long, and prolonged this story over such a long period of time, my writing style has changed from what it was when this story started. Along with my personality, what I first wanted this story to become, and what I like to read overall.

Now this is where I need some input from you. I seriously don't want to cancel this story. This was my second chaptered story I ever started began to write, and the first one I actually did quit writing. I feel like I would be cheating you and me if I did actually cancel this. The longer I waited to write the chapters, the less inspiration and drive I had to finish this.

I need you to review, or message, me and tell me what you actually think about this story. If you hate some piece of dialogue, tell me. If you think this entire story is horrific, tell me. If you absolutely love this entire story, let me know. But I want reason as of why you love, or hate, this story. I don't necessarily mind the one-sentence reviews, but one sentence will not help me in any form or fashion.

Though I wish not to cancel this story, I will if I find it necessary. If you have any ideas that you think would make this story have a satisfying finish, please message me. Though I really don't want to give this story up for someone to finish, if you would like to finish this story for me, message me. If you have any advice for me, either message me or post a review.

Thank you for reading this far, as I know that this is probably annoying some of you. I shall go since this is now over 400 words. Any help you can give me is greatly appreciated. Until next time.

-Thydude


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